Sports Illustrated's Rick Reilly is somewhat of a celebrity.
He's been named Sportswriter of the Year several times and has appeared in
several SI commercials with one of the swimsuit models. So it was somewhat
surprising to see him use his high profile pulpit to pick on the little guy.

In a recent column of his, he playfully derided fantasy baseball fans:
"You smell like a goat. You're unshaven. You work endless hours in dimly
lit caves. You speak a language understood only by others of your kind. You
fear women and put prices on men's heads. And legions of enemies long to
destroy you."

Funny. I can't believe he's bringing personal appearance into
this. Have you seen some of your contemporaries, Mr. Reilly? They're
not exactly GQ material, are they? In fact, about the only thing they're
in are Hair Club for Men or Jenny Craig ads.

As for their habits, they work endless hours in a place that smells
like old sweaty socks. They speak in a kind of esperanto philosophica
obscura; things like how the work of the '93 Phillies bullpen was a lesson
on how to live one's life, etc. They don't necessarily fear women,
but they often wonder how they managed to find one that would tolerate their
incessant sports anecdotes. Strikingly similar, really.

RR: "You are, of course, a fantasy baseball geek."

Y'know, it was so-called "geeks" who put a man on the moon.

RR: "All you care about is your pretend world of major league
players and their stats. You root for numbers, not teams.

That's right. We root for numbers. The alternative is
to root for teams, which free agency and parsimonious ownership has essentially
reduced to rooting for laundry. So which pursuit is more foolish?

RR: You have depersonalized the game, sucked the life out
of it; all so you can say you took $100 off your former friends."

Sucked the life out of the game? If by "sucked the life out"
you mean saved the game from obscurity after the last work stoppage, then
I whole heartedly agree. You'd like to think that Cal saved the game.
But there was no significant increase in attendance other than in Baltimore
the year he broke Gehrig's record. And he didn't play in the NL, so
there's not much chance he saved the game there. No, what saved the
game was millions of "geeks" buying tickets to watch their players "put up
numbers". See, even the players understand; they use the roto-guys'
lingo.

It's not a coincidence that periodicals like Baseball America increased
their readership hundreds-fold at the same time that fantasy baseball began
to gain popularity. It's not a coincidence that the STATS Inc. Handbooks
are the biggest selling sports books every year. Nor is it a coincidence
that the increase in cogent statistical analysis and increased acceptance
of sabermetrics over the last decade just happened to occur at the same time
that fantasy players were looking for new ways to evaluate talent so they
could win their league's prize pot. Those geeks you playfully detest
not only saved America's pastime, but they have injected more money to baseball's
economy than probably all other demographics combined.

You wanna know who sucked the life out of the game, who depersonalized
it? I'll give you a hint: they are led by a man who used to sell cars
in Milwaukee. These men have constantly threatened the popularity and
the integrity of the game - pretty flagrantly for the past 8 years - all
for the sake of busting the player's union to make 8% more than several billion.
If you want to find who sucked the life out of the game, look no further
than the man who announced that baseball was in financial shambles and need
to contract two teams just days after one of the most exciting (and profitable)
seasons and World Series in the last 25 years. They've been pretty
busy chipping away at the game this year, too; you can read about it in both
the Congressional Record and in Forbes. It has been these guys - no
need to name names, I hope - who have turned this game into nothing more
than an accountant's ledger. Fantasy sports fans are just doing a pale
but harmless imitation.

RR: "It's not just baseball. Fifteen percent of Americans
over 18 have been in one fantasy sports league or another."

Yep, 15% and growing. So if you want to increase the readership
of your column by 15% or more, next time, use more numbers.